<p>Just curious umm...</p>
<p>How do admissions people know for sure if you say on your app that your Native American/other URM? Do they like check every applicant with your school/birth certificate/idk what else? What if you are like 1/16 URM? 1/4? What if they find out and you say it was an accident? If you do get in and it says your Native Amer or something does that stay on your record forever or something?</p>
<p>Lol, I don't really plan on doing these, just curious if its possible.</p>
<p>Native American applicants must, IIRC, provide a tribal registration number. If you are not registered, you are not considered Native American.</p>
<p>Okay how bout like African American/Puerto Rican/etc.?</p>
<p>Check all the ethnicity boxes.</p>
<p>I definitely won’t lie lol, the MIT app is too precious.</p>
<p>People can usually tell whether you might be African American or Hispanic by looking at you. I do know one person at MIT who is half black but looks almost completely white, but that is pretty rare. </p>
<p>Since a fairly large portion of white Americans have some Native American ancestry, tribal registration is required. For example, I’m 1/16 Native American, but it would be ridiculous for me to claim URM status.</p>
<p>Ya but what if they don’t see you before you’re already admitted? And what if you claim you are, what actual evidence or verification do they have? Also, can you put down URM status if you 1/4?, that sometimes can be difficult to verify visually.</p>
<p>Hmm… I wasn’t actually able to put down my ethnic affiliation on the app. I think this is the case for internationals.</p>
<p>Although it’s abundantly clear where I come from by looking at my name =P</p>
<p>
You should write down the ethnic affiliation with which you self-identify. I had friends at MIT (twins) who were a totally awesome mish-mash of ethnicities, but who self-identified as African-American because that’s the primary ethnicity they considered themselves and their family.</p>
<p>The MIT admissions office does not police this identification.</p>
<p>@Jobbin: If you say you’re African American but then show up at orientation as a pale green-eyed redhead with freckles…I suspect something bad would happen to you. That’s an extreme case, but seriously, don’t even try it. Mendacity is not welcome at MIT. Look up Marilee Jones. </p>
<p>Just for the record, I think it’s ridiculous how obsessed Americans are with race. I don’t think it should play a part in college admissions. In our diverse modern world, socioeconomic status is a much better indicator of who should get special consideration. There are lots of poor white people, and there are lots of recent African immigrants who shouldn’t be treated any differently than recent Asian immigrants. However, we have to live with the current system, however imperfect it may be.</p>
<p>@123
I completely agree. I am an international from Sweden, and I must say I had no idea colleges in the US even request race information until I applied. I was very surprised and had a laugh, I seriously believe that it would not have been tolerated to even ask about race in this context here in Sweden.</p>